Santa Barbara Attempting to Break World Record for “Largest Backwards Walk”

Is there anything better to brag about than being a world record holder? To count yourself as one is to say that you have done something so impressive, so ambitious ― or, let’s be honest, so weird ― that no one else in history has achieved it. The fastest mile ever run. The most T-shirts ever worn at one time. The most watermelons smashed with your skull.

This weekend, Santa Barbarans big and small will have a chance to join the ranks of true immortality. All you will have to do is walk backward for six and a half blocks on State Street, from Canon Perdido to a half block past Micheltorena. It’s not a race and no real skills are required other than showing up and not turning around (though a slight twist of the neck is permissible) while moving in reverse for one kilometer. The current record stands at 1,107 people.

“I’m not sure I know how this all got started,” laughed Cameron Benson recently when asked about his motivation for organizing the event. Like so many of us, Benson, who is the Creeks Division Manager for the City of Santa Barbara, was fascinated in his youth by the old encyclopedia-sized Guinness Book of World Records. And so, while waiting in a doctor’s office a little over a year ago, he stumbled upon a modern-day version of the book (now simply titled Guinness World Records) and dared to ask himself, “I wonder if there are any records in here that are actually beatable?” After flipping a few pages, he saw the current record-holding back-walk in India from 2014. As a longtime veteran of the State Street Mile, Benson knew immediately that getting over 1,100 participants downtown was possible. What he didn’t know, however, was just how difficult it would be to secure the blessings of the Guinness brain trust.